1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to test instruments, and more particularly, to a portable telecommunication test set with a built-in web browser.
2. Description of Related Art
Telephone communication has seen a phenomenal growth since its inception because of its extreme usefulness in today's world. It is hard, and almost impossible, to conceive of a world without telephones. Many people would say that telephones have become an integral part of a civilized society. Telephone communications typically take place over the traditional pair of copper conductors which form telephone lines. However, a number of different “non-traditional” transmission media, such as fiber optic cables, microwave links (in satellite communication), terrestrial radio links (in wireless communication), etc, are increasingly being employed to accommodate burgeoning telephone traffic world-wide. In any event, traditional telephone lines of a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) or a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) still play major roles as primary telephone transmission media for a large number of telephone calls. Further, a significant number of telephone calls placed over so-called “non-traditional” transmission media still end up utilizing these telephone lines as secondary transmission media for call completion. Modem computers with data transmission capabilities also frequently use the telephone lines supported by the PSTN (or POTS) for data communication with remote destinations.
A telephone subscriber's telephone line typically terminates at a local switching facility or local office in the telephone service provider's network. Two or more local offices may be connected to a central switching facility via additional telephone lines to allow interoffice telephone communication. A telephone “subscriber's loop” may normally consist of the subscriber's telephone unit, the telephone line between the subscriber's unit and the local office and a circuit at the local switching facility to supply battery current (to the subscriber's telephone unit), signaling current (over the telephone line) and a means of connecting the subscriber's telephone line to a switching unit within the local switching facility. To facilitate a two-way telephone communication over the subscriber's loop, it is necessary to maintain each subscriber's telephone line as well as other circuit elements fault-free.
Maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of a telephone line is performed by a lineman or network technician employed by the telephone service provider. The technician may carry a hand-held butt set or test set 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 to test the telephone line for proper ringing signals, dial tone reception, noise level, etc. The butt set 10 is normally attached to the telephone line being tested with a pair of alligator or bed-of-nails clips (not shown) provided as part of the butt set 10 and extending from a housing 12. The housing 12 has a keypad 14 with buttons quite similar to those on a telephone unit to enable the technician to dial a telephone number or to enter specific digits, e.g., to check whether the telephone line carries dialed signals or to place a phone call. The housing 12 may have a built in speaker unit (not shown) that may be activated with the SPK button on the keypad 14 so that the technician may listen to various tones, noise and other signals over the telephone line hands-free. The LNR button on the keypad 14 allows for a “Last Number Redial” function. The DAT button on the keypad 14 may be pressed to override data lockout capability, which refers to a capability of the test set 10 to alert the technician when there is a danger of inadvertently disrupting data flowing over the telephone line, such as when the test set 10 is attached to the telephone line and the technician attempts to switch the line from data mode to talk mode.
Upon finding a faulty telephone line, the technician may need to refer to additional information, e.g., cable records pertaining to a given telephone line or any line-specific circuit details. One disadvantage with the prior art butt set 10 is that the technician may not retrieve the requisite data from the butt set 10 while in the field. If the technician wants the desired information while in the field, the technician may need to contact either another technician who is knowledgeable about the given line configuration or the technician's home office where someone can find the needed information. When a technician is dependent on others for information retrieval, there will typically be a greater delay in obtaining the needed information. Such a delay may affect performance efficiency and project execution timing for a given maintenance or troubleshooting project and may not be desirable, especially when labor costs need to be contained.
It is therefore desirable to have a multi-functional, hand-held butt set or a similar portable telecommunication test set that is capable of storing telephone line-specific data and circuit information so as to enable a technician to obtain requisite information while in the field. It is further desirable that the test set or the butt set be capable of accessing a remote information server from the field location if additional information is desired by the technician.